


An Identity for an Identity

by aria_dc_al_fine



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Gen, Iron Man 3 Spoilers, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-05-10
Updated: 2013-05-10
Packaged: 2017-12-10 23:52:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/791613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aria_dc_al_fine/pseuds/aria_dc_al_fine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bruce Banner without the Hulk and his intelligence is nobody. But he seems happy...and what right does Tony have to criticise him after what he did to his suits?</p><p>(Meanwhile, Fury worries that the Avengers is falling apart at the seams.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Identity for an Identity

**Author's Note:**

> This story marks the end of my undergraduate life!! Hehe, yep, so happy I finished my last exam in my last semester.
> 
> Let me say upfront that I don’t know how this will end. Ok I lied. I kind of know. But it may be too clichéd. And the plot I planned may change. Stories write themselves sometimes.

Bruce didn’t know how he ended up here, in this place.

It was almost like he’d…transformed, and woke up without any memories of what the Other Guy did. Except the doctor _knew_ for sure he didn’t; Bruce was just meandering down the back alleys of Jakarta, hoping to find a place to crash. The underside of the highways weren’t a viable option the last time a group of troubled runaway youths who were convinced that Bruce had some cash to spare almost beat him (and unleashed the Other Guy) until a girl whose ailed mother he’d treated got her police boyfriend to chase them away. Having done enough good deeds for the day, Bruce was dead on his feet when he suddenly felt like he had entered another world.

Because the garden the physicist-cum-doctor of medicine was standing in didn’t fit with the tight blocks of office-houses at _Depok_ or the slums surrounding the stink that was _Ciliwung_ river. It was vast, green and looked well-taken care of, more like one of those belonging to _Permata Hijau_ , where most of the richest of the rich of the metropolitan city lived [1]. The house at the end of the porch looked quaint, a strong Javanese influence reflected in the curling roofs and the décor.

 _Crap_ , Bruce thought absently (horror did not creep up on him because he had a tight lid on his emotions, thank you very much), _I didn’t just break into someone’s house, did I?_

“No, you did not,” someone answered his thought, and Bruce’s heart jumped to his throat. It was a testament to his ‘party tricks’ that not even a hint of green flashed through his eyes. That and the soothing scent of jasmine and sandalwood escaping through the open doorway helped.

A woman was leaning on said open doorway. Bruce wasn’t exactly tall, but she was tiny – barely five feet, he noted – her black hair tied in a bun. She was in a white _kebaya_ , her _sarong_ brown lined with gold. It was too dark for Bruce to discern more of her features.

“Come on in,” she cocked her head. Her voice held none of the clipped, flat residues of Indonesian accent.

Bruce just gave the stranger a wan smile. “I have no money on me,” he told her. Bruce figured that this strange place that made his senses a little foggy must be a hotel, or a ‘massage’ house of some sort [2]…

She only flashed him all-knowing smile. “I know you don’t, Dr Banner.”

All of a sudden, Bruce was alert, the hairs on the back of his neck standing. Was she another member of SHIELD? Why would they send a stranger after him and not Natasha or heck, even may be Tony or Steve? They knew that surprises aren’t good to his nerves…

Bruce narrowed his eyes. Was she not from SHIELD, then? She didn’t have the bearing of a military woman…who could have-

“I’m not sent by anyone,” she answered his thoughts, and Bruce was even more spooked. “Do you believe in magic, Dr Banner?”

The non-sequitur threw him off. “Uh…”

“I know you are a man of science,” she took a few steps toward him, slowly, gently, her dark eyes always on his. Like she was approaching a predator. Like she knew that the Other Guy resided in him. “But surely, having seen Mjölnir, you knew that other sources of…energy exist. Sources you may not understand.”

Bruce blinked. “Are you…an extraterrestrial being too?”

She didn’t answer him. Only the uncanny smile remained. She had, however, managed to enter Bruce’s personal space without tripping off any warning signals in his head. It was hard to, when she smelled of the incense that was surrounding him in a blanket of calm.

The woman placed a hand on his forearm lightly. “Do you believe in superposition?” she began, another non-sequitur, “in multi-world interpretation?”

Was she trying to speak in his language? “Well,” Bruce remarked uncertainly, “the theory is sound.”

“So, would you believe me if I tell you that where you are living now is but one of those multi-verses, and I have the power to enable you to live in another verse?” She stared at him seriously.

Bruce snorted. He was not fond of the MWI precisely for this reason. “Only quantum objects like sub-atoms could exist in two states simultaneously, and I am definitely _not_ a quantum object-”

“A verse where you do not have to carry that deep pool of rage inside you,” she stated, her eyes unblinking, her expression still as solemn, “a verse where the Other Guy does not exist, where you are a _normal_ human being.”

Her words surrounded him and taunted him. Tempted him.

Bruce exhaled. “Ok, let’s say you _can_ do that,” he humoured her, skepticism thick in his tone, “of course, I would actually like you to.”

Her dark-eyed gaze stayed confident and serious. “There is a price,” she said.

This was getting even stranger and stranger. “Yes?” Bruce responded.

She nodded. “Your intelligence. An identity for an identity,” she continued, “Once you lose it, you won’t become…stupid or anything…just of average IQ of around 110.”

This petite lady knew _way_ too much about him: his name, the Other Guy, his interests in physics, and that his IQ was significantly above average…

Bruce scanned her from head to toe one more time. He was _sure_ that she wasn’t military, or part of a secret organization like SHIELD. There wasn’t a single line of tension in the way she carried herself, not unlike the coil Bruce – or at least, the Other Guy – could sense in Natasha whenever the spy was around, persistently alert and always ready for action (and the Other Guy was way more primal than Bruce, more intuitive).  Additionally, the tight press of the _kebaya_ made hiding any weapons impossible.

There was just… _something_ in her that muted the Other Guy, told his instincts that he could trust her. Bruce had never felt this way toward anyone for a long, long time. Not even when he was finally comfortable with Betty. The only one who came close was Tony Stark, because the Iron man was so fearless, perhaps dangerously and stupidly so. This peaceful numbness might have prompted him to be more open than he usually was. “You know, I was ready to,” he gestured around his neck and swallowed.

“End your own life,” she ended his fumbling kindly.

“Right,” the physicist frowned. His dysthymia [3] must be so obvious in his gait. “If I was ready to do that, what makes you think…?”

“This,” she shot a look on his forehead, “and that are two different matters.” Spoken wisely and aptly.

Silence stretched between them, the smoke of the incense wrapping around the scientist’s head until he shook it inwardly. Oh, why was Bruce taking this so seriously. “I’m game if you’re game,” he challenged her.

A hint of a smile appeared on her lips. “Your wish is as good as granted, Dr Banner,” [4] her words were soft and rounded, like her eyes.

And Bruce knew no more.

TBC

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. Yes, I’m an Indonesian.  
> 2\. You know what they are…  
> 3\. Persistent low level of depression  
> 4\. She is a nameless original character, modeled after Yuuko of xxxholic.


End file.
